Down the Hall
by esompthin
Summary: I made this as a final for my US History class. Its just Jed telling Octavius about the Civil War.


I made this as my final project in my US history class. I think its horrible and nothing but dialog, there's no plot and it just Jed talking about the Civil War, but if you want to read it, go nuts.

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><p>Down the hall and to the left there is a small room, with chairs in the center and various miniature figures in dioramas along the walls. In this room, there is a cowboy and a roman, who tonight, will share an adventure through time.<p>

Jedediah stretched as the sun fell below the horizon and the magic of Ahkmenrah's tablet took effect. The museum sprung to life; lions could be heard in the distance, along with Hun, dinosaurs, and one demanding Easter Island Head. Jed's own townsmen started their work on the railroad that crosses through their diorama. He made his way to the diorama next to his own: The Roman Empire. After the battle between the museum and the old night guards, Jed and Octavius had become good friends, and usually spend their time together.

When Jed approached the other diorama, Octavius was calling commands to his soldiers in Latin. As the general saw the cowboy approaching, he shouted a command and his men relaxed and sauntered off.

"Good night, my friend." Octavius greeted.

"Howdy, partner." Jed tipped his hat.

Octavius chuckled, "It's like you're speaking another language."

Jed shook his head, "Naw, partner, what you were doin' there was another language." He gestured to the Roman soldiers that were speaking quietly to one another.

"Latin? I suppose it is. Would you like me to teach you?" Octavius had offered this before, he seemed eager to share the dead language, even though everyone in the museum could understand English perfectly well.

"Nope! Yer always talking about your great Roman Empire and Latin all that." Which was true, Octavius told tales of Rome often and Jedidiah hardly spoke of his time in return. It was far easier for Octavius to explain to Jed the 'past', than it was for Jed to explain to Octavius the 'future.' Jed puffed out his chest and exclaimed, "Tonight, I'm goin' to tell you about _my _empire!"

Octavius raised an eyebrow. A cowboy ruling an empire? Sounds absurd. "And what empire would that be?"

"America." The cowboy said proudly, gesturing to the area around them.

Octavius scoffed. "I know of America, vaguely. I do live in a museum."

"Yeah, and I know 'bout Rome. But that hasn't never stopped you from talkin' about it." Jed remarked. Octavius rolled his eyes at the double negative.  
>"Very well," The Roman said. "What would you like to share?"<p>

Jed clicked his tongue as he thought. "Well, I'm a guy for Manifest Destiny. So there's that."

"This would be far less difficult for all involved if you explained yourself further." The Roman prompted with a raised eyebrow.

"Manifest Destiny? Partner, that's why we're building the railroad on my side." He gestured to the wall, where his diorama was on the other side. The two moseyed over to the edge of the Roman diorama while they talked. They sat down, with their legs hanging over the edge, which to them felt like sitting on the edge of a cliff. "We're headed west!"

Octavius asked, "Is there an opposing empire westward?"

Jed shook his head slightly, "Not really, we just had to make it to the other side of the continent. It was our right as Americans; our duty." He paused, and added as an afterthought, "Though, for a while, America was fighting itself; we were our own _opposing empire. _We call that a 'civil war' and America's was between our northern and southern halves."

"Why was there conflict?" The Roman had taken off his helmet and set it down next to him.

"America, at the time, was split in ta north an' south. Well, after a while, we started to have less and less in common with each other. The north thought we were all united, and the south wasn't so sure. See, the south was doing something that the north didn't like all that much. They had, um, workers that were owned by their master. But they weren't really paid none -well, not usually, and it wasn't really their choice to work."

"Slaves." Octavius said, bluntly. "You're talking about slaves."

Jed fumbled for something to say and ended with an intelligent, "Uh, yeah."

"Romans had some of our own." He said with just a hint of pride.

"Okay, so, good, I don't have to explain that none. Yeah, the south was mainly farmers who needed slaves to grow King Cotton for them. That was all fine n' dandy, 'til the north started to not like enslavement anymore."

"And that's what caused the war?"

"Yeah. Well, kind of. See, Manifest Destiny is a pretty intense idea. Everybody was thinkin' 'bout it. Especially politicians- they're the guys who run to be our president, which is kind of like an, er, emperor." Jed stumbled on his words a bit. He didn't realize how much he might have to explain to the Roman about modern day America. "Teddy Roosevelt is one. America has tons of presidents. But not all at once. It's a four-year thing. Anyway, they were debatin' whether slaves should be in the west or not."

Octavius made a noncommittal sound as he watched the Mayans in the diorama on the other side of the room.

"Yeah, so lemme tell ya 'bout a fine fella named-" Jed's sentence was cut off by the cheerful voice of Theodore Roosevelt.

"Good evening, gentlemen." He said from atop of his horse, which only made him look even larger to the tiny men.

"Speak of the devil." Jed muttered in mild surprise as Teddy hopped off of Texas, and lowered his hand to the mini-figurines, allowing them to climb onto his palm.

Once they're settled, Teddy brought his hand closer to his eye level, so they could speak properly. "What seems to be tonight's news?" He spoke a lot quieter once the cowboy and Roman were so close to him, out of courtesy for their small ears.

Octavius answered for them, "Jedidiah has decided to grace me with the history of the Empire of America."

Theodore beamed, "Excellent, there's nothing more fascinating than the trials of these United States of America!"

"We're talkin' more like when the states weren't all that united." Jed said. "I was just 'bout to tell Octy here 'bout Lincoln an' all them folks from the Union."

If anything, Teddy's smile got wider, "Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president we had to offer! The greatest American president to ever live!"

Octavius nodded agreeably, but then said after a moment of hesitation, "Why is that, my liege?"

"Cuz', see, he wanted to stop slavery from bein' in the west more than anybody." Jed started.

"But the south was unaware of this." Theodor added.

"Right, they thought Lincoln wanted ta' stop slavery altogether."

"Which wasn't necessarily his main priority."

The two Americans glanced at each other, grinning as Jed finished with, "So the south got scared. The war started, an' Lincoln led America through it, fixin' everythin' up right an' good."

"Since Abraham Lincoln was the brave man that helped heal America, he is the one credited to be better than the others." Theodor said, "Including myself."

"Jedidiah, you said from the 'Union', by what means are you talking about?" Octavius asked.

Jed sat down on Teddy's palm, so Octavius had to look down at him as he explained, "The Union is what we called the north. An' then the south was the Confederacy."

"Right," Teddy said, "after Lincoln became president, South Carolina seceded from the Union on the twentieth of December in 1860, and formed their own country that they called the Confederate States of America."

Octavius glanced up at Teddy and asked, "Did the south always want to leave?"

Teddy thought for a moment, and then said, "They knew if Lincoln won the election, they would no longer be a part of America."

The Roman opened his mouth to say more, but before he could, Jedidiah continued with the explanation.

"The other southern states joined the CSA a while after that election." Jed added, counting with his fingers as he listed them off: "There were eleven in the Confederacy. There were 20 free states, and then three border states."

"So the north had the upper hand." Octavius nodded, thinking out loud, with a soft smile, "They had more of these states, and therefore more men. Am I correct?" The tiny Roman figure looked over at the Americans before him in question.

Jed nodded, and said, "Yessir, an' they also had more weapons an' supplies. Cuz all the factories that made them were in the north." He pulled out his unusable twin pistols to show Octavius.

Teddy added absentmindedly, with a nod to a passing mammoth, "And they had better railroads and transportation."

Octavius smiled, "So it was an easy win, then?"

Teddy chuckled, "They thought it was going to be."

"The south wasn't goin' in there with their heads cut off. They had really good leaders that knew what they were doin'. Not ta mention, they were fightin' for their way of life. They weren't never goin' ta give up slavery, not even if it was the end of the world."

"They probably thought it was the end of the world." Teddy hummed.

"Probably. They were also on the defensive, so they knew the land they were fightin' on like the back of their hands."

"How did this all start?" Octavius asked.

Teddy started walking, down the hall at a slow, easy pace, while he spoke, "The attack at Fort Sumter on April 12th, 1861, started the war. The battle took place because both sides believed the island fort belonged to them, and well, conflict was going to brew."

"Right. And up 'til the First Battle of Bull Run, the north thought the south was just throwin' a lil' temper tantrum an' would get over themselves within ninety days." Jedidiah quipped helpfully.

"What happened at the Bull Run battle?" Octavius asked.

Jed started to use big hand gestures as he spoke, "It was like a rodeo, or a gladiator fight! Everybody was there to watch the battle!"

Teddy said without missing a beat, "The Union Army attacked the Confederates on July 21st, 1861-"

"An' they were winnin' until they weren't." Jed interrupted.

"…Right." Teddy said, "Stonewall Jackson, a Confederate general, brought the south to a great victory against their northern neighbors."

Jed nodded, "Bull Run was the battle that proved the south ain't messin' 'round."

Octavius smiled at that and pointed out, "You never finished talking about any of Lincoln's leaders. The rest of the Union?"

The cowboy was confused for a split second before recognition crossed his face, "Oh, yeah. Yeah, the north had some good leaders. Like, uh, Grant. He ended the war."

Teddy nodded and said, "McClellan was a fine man."

Jed's head snapped to stare at the former president, "No he ain't! He never did nothin' risky! He was too cautious!"

"He fought at the Battle of Antietam."

"He _lost_ at the Battle of Antietam. That was America's bloodiest day!"

"To be great, is to be misunderstood."

"I understand that ya' don't know nothin' 'bout fightin'. When ya' got more men, ya' fight with them. Ya' don't wait 'til the president says 'go', you just _go._" He turns to Octavius, and said, "Even if ya' ain't got more men, ya' still fight. Ain't that right, 500 boy?"

Octavius blinked at him, an eyebrow raised in disbelief, as he said flatly, "That was the Greeks."

Jed shook his head, his hands flopped down to his sides, "Why you gotta shoot me down like that?"

There was a moment of silence before Teddy said, "Winfield Scott Hancock, there was a fine general."

Jed looked like he was ready to argue, but then he thought better of it and said, "Yeah, your right. That guy did great." He turned to Octavius, "Scott fought in all the important battles. Williamsburg, Antietam, Chancellorsville, you name it. He was there."

"But his finest moment was at the battle of Gettysburg. Its said that no other Union general was as powerful as Scott and his men."

Teddy stopped by a table, left over from a demonstration a historian was doing that morning, and set the two tiny men on it. He nodded and said, "It was a pleasure being a part of this fair retelling of history, but I have a beautiful woman to find." He said and then headed off in the direction of Sacagwea's display, which was down the hall and to the left.

The two watched as the president walked away.

Jed turned back to Octavius and said, "So Gettysburg was a battle that happened in Pennsylvania, right outside Washington, from July 1st to July 3rd in 1863. It's one of the Civil War's most famous battles. Probably because it was the largest battle. There was like 85,000 men in the Union's Army and then about 75,000 in the Confederacy's Army."

Jed was pacing while he spoke, lost in thought. The only sound he heard was his own voice and the sound of his boots rhythmically hitting the floor. "Meade was in charge of the north's army, and Robert E. Lee was in charge of the south's." He paused for a moment in his pacing, lowering his hat from his head and said, "A lot of good Americans died that day."

He placed the hat on his head and carried on, "But that was the turning point of the war. The south lost a third of their army, they didn't stand a chance. Lee was gonna quit after that loss. He told Davis, the south's president, but his paperwork was rejected, or somethin'. Davis, don't get me started on Davis. He had so many slaves, that man was the devil himself, I swear. Anyway, Lee had to keep being a general after all that brewhaha. It was at Gettysburg that Lincoln gave his Gettysburg Address speech, obviously. And that was on November 19, 1863. It was shorter than a flower growin' in a dry spell, but it was powerful and made a point."

Jed stopped pacing altogether and turned to the Roman, clapping his gloved hands together, he said, "Any questions?"

Octavius looked up from the edge of the table, his expression slightly worried, "How are we going to descend from here?"

Jed and Octavius had somehow made their way back to the Wild West diorama. Jed was muttering more to himself than to the Roman, "And then there was Sherman. He was this close to being a terrorist. But he didn't never murder civilians, just stole their food and burned their supplies."

"Why?" Octavius prompted once Jed didn't say anything.

"He did this March to the Sea thing, where he took his men to Atlanta. They went with no supplies, so they lived off the land, while they tooked the south's food. It scared the crud outta the civilians."

Octaivus nodded, "He sounds like a very important man."

"Not as important as Pope apparently." Jed muttered bitterly.

Before Octaivus could ask anything else, the night guard walked up to them.

"Hey guys." Larry, the night guard that had been hired a few months ago, greeted the small men merrily.

Jed tipped his hat to the man, "Howdy, Gigantor."

Octavius gave a curt nod, "Larry."

The man seemed giddy about something, he asked the little figurines, "Hey, what do you think would happen if I made my own company that would make some of my inventions for the public? And I could sell all them for profit?"

"A rope that keeps Dexter the Demon from taking your keys is not an invention." Jeb shook his head at the larger man.

Larry rolled his eyes, "I mean, I think it could work out better than The Snapper did."

"Yeah," Jeb snorted, "And I'm Billy the Kid." He pulled out his guns and pointed them at Larry. The night guard sighed and wandered down the hall, turning left at the intersection. Jeb turned to Octavius, who had a contemplative expression on his face. "What?"

Octavius snapped out of his thoughts, "Hm? Oh, I was just pondering whether Larry's inventions would serve the common man effectively."

Jed stared at the other man for a moment, before breaking out into laughter, "You got to be kiddin' me, partner! No one would waist a penny on anythin' Gigantor thinks up!" His laughter turned into small chuckles as he led Octavius down the hall and to the left, back towards the miniature figurines dioramas. "Now, if ya' want ta' see real useful inventions, just look at what we got back in the Ol' West!"

"Now, we don't use none of yer swords and shields. Lemme show you how real men fight."

"Right, because throwing small rocks from very far away is far more impressive than hand to hand combat." Octavius said dryly.

"We don't throw. We shoot. And they ain't rocks, they're bullets." Jed hissed back.

Jed led them to a small building towards the back of the Wild West diorama. Inside was shelves upon shelves of, what looked like to Octavius as sticks. "I'll show you impressive." Jed said as he picked up one particular weapon. "This is called a gun." He held it in one hand and used the other to point at various parts of the gun. "You put yer bullets in here, cock it, and pull the trigger. An' BANG!" He shouted the last bit, causing Octavius to jump.

"I know what guns are, Jedidiah, you always attempt to shoot me with the two around your waist." Octavius said, gesturing to Jed's unusable pistols.

The cowboy continued as if Octavius wasn't really there, talking to the weapon in his hands more than to the Roman before him, "Now this one's a special gun. It's called a Sharp gun. It was just 'bout the first quick rifle to be used in a war. This baby could reload and fire faster and better than any other gun there was."

Octavius sighed, unimpressed. He could kill many soldiers with just a sword. Why would he need a gun?

"There's another one I wanna show ya, outback." Jed said as he put the Sharp gun down. Octavius nodded quietly, not wanting to be the one that got Jedediah Smith mad.

"Now, looky here," The cowboy said with childish excitement as he lead the Roman deeper into the diorama. "It's called a Gatline gun." Jed said as he pulled a sheet off a large object. He bounced on his feet, unable to contain his joy, as he waited for Octavius's response.

"It's… very shiny." Octavius provided after a moment of examination. The object before him sat on a large cart, with two wheels on each side. He knew from earlier that it's a weapon, a gun, of some kind. But the Roman can't see how something so large could be helpful in battle. It looks heavy, it would weigh you down.

Jed rolled his eyes and positioned the large gun so it faced the museum wall, where the background of the diorama was painted. He grabbed a handle on one side of the gun and cranked it. Within a second, dozens of bullets were shot into the prairie wall.

Octavius's eyes widened as he watched the Gatline gun in work. It was loud and expensive looking, but it was initiating that plaster.

"Your weaponry is far more impressive than I had originally expected." Octavius said after Jed stopped.

"But wait, there's more!" Jed said enthusiastically. He leads the Roman to a picture of a large balloon that was hung on the wall. "I present ta' ya, the world's first hot air flyin' contraption."

Octavius observed the painting. "What did this do?"

"They'd fly up in these to see where the other armies were. Lincoln was obsessed with them. He also really liked the ironside battleships they made. They had to be sure that the boats could take a cannonball or two, so they made them with armor." The cowboy hit the Roman's metal armor to prove his point.

"Fascinating." Jed couldn't tell if the tone of Octavius's voice was sarcastic or not.

The two miniature men found their way to the benches in the middle of the miniature dioramas hall. They sat together on the plush cushions and watched each other's dioramas across the way. The citizens of each diorama were busy running around, telling their own stories and making their own history.

Jed clapped his hands together and said, "Now all this ended when General Grant, the Union leader, surrounded General Lee, that Confederate fella, at Appomattox Court. Lee surrendered an' the war was over."

"This was all fought by the Americans alone?" Octavius asked, impressed.

Jed nodded, and said, "For the most part. The British, who are a different empire, i guess, that are on an island away from here, they didn't want to help the south because that'd give them a bad name, supportin' slavery an' all that. But they didn't want to help the north because they needed to keep trading with the south for cotton." He paused for a second, before stating, "There were some Irish, which is next to Britain, who fought in the war. But it wasn't really because they wanted to help end slavery. It was more like they needed the food and money. But yeah, just the north, the south, and the Irish."

Octavius smiled, patting Jed on the back, "A marvelous tale!"

"It doesn't end there, and 'cuz of all that happened, a lot of changes took place in America. New Amendments were made, which are like rights that everyone in the country gets." Jed said as he entered the miniature figurines room. "Like, the thirteenth Amendment, which says that all the slaves are free now. And then the Fourteenth, which granted citizenship to every person born in America and gave people equal protection. And then the next one said that every man gets the right to vote for our leaders, regardless of color."

Octavius nodded along with the new information, "Did anything else change?"

Jed chuckled at that, "Of course. Change always happens."

The Roman rolled his eyes, "Well, you can't tell a story without telling the end."

"Fair enough." Jed rubbed his hands together absentmindedly in thought, "Well, for the south, there was a huge economic disaster, more or less, because so many of their workers had died in the war."

Octavius raised an eyebrow, "That many slaves fought?"

"Well, yeah, but I meant their men in general. They lost millions of men in the war, so there was huge population loss, and a workforce loss. And obviously, a large amount of slaves were freed."

"So everything was good for your empire."

"Yup." Jed said happily. "Well, actu'lly, nope. Change happens, but it's a long, slow trek. There were these things called Black Codes, that were basically laws that restricted African Americans form doin' things they wanted. They had to get a license from whites before they could do business with them. They couldn't marry white people, in some states. It was hard for them to do much of anything."

Octavius frowned, "Why go through all that trouble, just to restrict their rights in a different way?"

"Well, its not like everyone was trying to gun them down. There were folks that were helpin' the freed slaves. There was this one act, the Freemen's Bureau, and it helped freed slaves and poor whites after the war. It gave them food, houses, medical aid, made schools, helped out legally, and all the like."

"That's good." Octavius hummed.

Jed nodded and continued, "Of course it didn't really have the funds to do so and a few years later Congress shut it down. But its the thought that counts. Kinda."

Octavius shook his head good-humoredly. "How did the Confederate states join the Union again?" He paused for a second and then asked, "They did rejoin, did they not?"

"Yeah, yeah. That was called Reconstruction. Because we were re-construct-in' the country back together." Jed smiled to himself as he continued, "There were three plans for it. Lincoln, who just said, 'abolish slavery, swear yer loyalty to the Constitution, make a new government, and you can come back.' It was pretty simple and was called the 10% Plan. But Lincoln died before they could do it. Then there was Johnson, his plan was kinda simple too. He said states would be welcomed back to the Union once they created a new state government that abolished slavery, repealed the state's ordinance of secession, and stop associatin' with the Confederacy. But his plan didn't really talk about what to do with freed slaves. And that's where them Black Codes came in."

"What was the third plan?"

Jed licked his lips in thought, "They called this one the Radical Republican Reconstruction Plan or the Congressional Plan. This one was meant to help the freed slaves, and punish the south for goin' through all that mess. It passed the Civil Rights Act, and The Reconstruction Acts, which divided the South into 5 military districts with the military commander of the district given complete authority. Under this plan, no state would be allowed back into the Union 'til it ratified the 14th Amendment and guaranteed the right to vote for African American men. And later, for some states, the 15th Amendment had to be ratified, too. Eventually, all the southern states joined the union with this plan."

Jed looked like he was about to say more, but then Larry's voice over the museum's intercom interrupted him. The night guard made his usual announcement, "Five minutes until sunrise, guys!"

Slowly but surely, everyone started making their way back to their displays and dioramas, reluctant to leave the night, but excited to see the day. Jed looked at Octavius, pouting slightly, "I wasn't done explainin' stuff yet."

"I'm sure you'll find time to finish your tale." Octavius said as he started to walk away from Jed, "And when you do, I'll finish listening."

With a smiles and happy goodbyes, the two part ways, each heading to their own diorama to get ready for the sun rising on the horizon.

That's the amazing thing about this museum. Knowledge is always being shared between people here, whether they're visiting the museum, or inhabiting it. Everywhere you go, there's a new lesson. The next one might just be down the hall, and to the left.

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><p>and that's it. tell me what you think.<p> 


End file.
